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‘The New Delhi ska act have been winning accolades all over for their brilliant stage act, but their album was in every sense one of the best albums of the year.' – NH7

The Ska Vengers is a new Delhi-based band that blends'ska'' rhythms with elements of dub, punk, jazz, and rap to come up with a form of music that is refreshingly different, energetic, and highly danceable.
 

Keysman Stefan Kaye rounded up a few of his musician friends to form the band in the fall of 2009. All members are well-seasoned performers in their own right. Nikhil, Stefan, and Tony also play in jazz-punk outfit The Jass B'stards, and they are regular performers on India’s first touring cabaret show, ‘The Stiff Kittens’ Medicine Show.' Samara C, aka Begum X, is a singer, actor, and yoga therapist. She is well known as a TV host for her own yoga show on NDTV Good Times. Delhi Sultanate has garnered much praise for his highly skilled, socially conscious rap with drum ‘n’ bass team BASSFoundation and also his own project, Word, Sound, Power. Chazz joined the band on guitar in 2015, replacing original member Raghav ‘Diggy’ Dang.

Various members have either won or been nominated for Jack Daniels Rock Awards in keyboards, bass, drums, and vocals categories for their work with the band.

The Ska Vengers play very much for the moment, as carefully worked-out structures are at times elongated and receive dub treatment, and Delhi Sultanate’s unique and highly rhythmic patois provides a suitable foil to Samara’s full-throttle vocal delivery. It is the band’s highly dance-oriented originals that are gaining plaudits from critics and feet moving with fans.

Following the release of their first song 'Rude Boy Skank' in October 2010, the band created huge waves with a handful of gigs at Ska! Ska! Ska! evenings at Q'BA New Delhi with their now expanded line-up featuring Rie Ona (sax) and Yohei Sato (trombone). One of their first gigs was a storming set in Delhi with ‘banghramuffin’ legend Apache Indian, who soon after brought the house down during the ‘Justice on Trial’ event at Alliance Française. The band has a number of notable musicians and writers among its fan base and received a request from author and social activist Arundhati Roy to perform at the launch of her latest book in May 2011. The band collaborated with Roy and performed a specially written piece accompanying a monologue she had put together for the occasion.

The band completed their first album in December 2011 and released it officially at the end of 2012. It was mixed by acclaimed music producer Miti Adhikari (Radiohead, Coldplay, Foo Fighters). The album has become a landmark in the Indian music scene since it is the first home-grown full-length album devoted to ska and reggae genres with all live instrumentation. Physical copies were produced independently on Stiff Kittens Records, and Times Music International is looking after digital online sales. The album was nominated as best album of the year for JD Rock Awards and was NH7’s album choice for 2013.

In April 2012, the band staged the largest rock concert to be held in an Indian prison, performing for 2000 prisoners at Asia’s largest jail, Tihar. The group managed to donate $5000 worth of musical and sound equipment to the music wards of the jail. The event was picked up by international media and covered extensively in The New York Times, BBC World Service, China Post, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Arab News, and many others.

They have received much praise from critics and audiences alike. Closer to TV channel VH1, India has devoted a 20-minute show to the band featuring songs from the album with specially made animation to accompany the songs.

They made the news again with a song and video they released to coincide with the Indian general election, ‘Modi, a Message to You.' The video achieved 40,000 views in less than one month and has been featured on international TV channels, most English-language national daily newspapers, and international news agency Reuters.

The group received nominations for MTV VMAI 2013 best group and best music video and GiMA awards for best debut, best pop album, and best single categories. They won the special jury prize for best Indian band at the LIVE Quotient Awards 2013.
In 2015, the band was nominated as the best band for their music video ‘Frank Brazil’ at the VH1 Europe Music Awards in the international artist category.

The Ska Vengers are widely considered to be one of the most exciting and relevant live musicals.

The Ska Vengers released their follow-up album 'XX' in July 2016 before embarking on a tour of many of the UK's largest festivals.

The band returned to the UK in the summer of 2017 to play a much larger tour, taking in 35 shows, including 3 shows at Glastonbury, 2 shows at Boomtown, Bestival, Secret Garden Party, Camp Bestival, Womad, and many more.

‘One of Delhi's most popular bands, the Ska Vengers, is conquering the Indian music scene with a sound rarely experienced before in the country." Blue Frog

'They are one of the most exciting musical aggregations to have emerged out of the Indian underground in a long, long time. Ska Vengers are definitely one of the select few who hold the keys to the future of Indian rock & roll.' NME India

‘There are albums, and then there is The Ska Vengers. The New Delhi Ska Act have been winning accolades all over for their brilliant stage act, but their album (released after a long wait) was in every sense one of the best albums of 2012. One of the best packaged, conceptualised, and written albums that Indian indie has seen in a while, and still packing a pretty strong punch in terms of content. There can be only one. This one.’ – NH7

‘A celebration of creative dissent wherein The Ska Vengers regaled the audience with a dose of quirky political rap.' The Hindu

‘A true representation of the forward-thinking artists that are bringing the spotlight over to the Indian music scene. Mesmerising and moreish, it is impossible not to find your limbs loosening while your body wills you to skank to the music’ – Wild City

‘Energetic, almost eccentric and dramatic music’ Indian Express

‘an early contender for the 2013 Album of the Year lists. This is a record that works on many levels, bridging the gap between dance floor bangers and politically informed lyricism.’ The Sunday Guardian

‘The Ska Vengers will “make it" quite simply because, on top of being very, very good, they show no weakness. They look terrific, and they sound terrific. They are the product of deliberate, single-minded artistic focus, a collective vision that’s entirely coherent, complete, and in perfect balance within itself. And because, unlike most groups, they know exactly what they’re doing; unlike most groups, they’ll end up big.’ Moop City

Band Members-

• Delhi Sultanate: Lead Vocals
• Begum X: Lead Vocals
• Stefan "Flexi' Kaye: Keys, Percussions
• Tony Guinard: Bass
• Chaz Bhalla: Guitar
• 'The Late' Nikhil Vasudevan: Drums

Additional musicians-

• Kishore Sodha: Trumpet
• Maarten Visser: Saxophone
• Rahul Thomas: Trombone/tenor sax
• Rosie Thomas: Trombone
• Sergio Dinarte: Bass